1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to safety devices for firearms, and more particularly to an improved safety device usable in the firing chamber of rifles, pistols and the like to prevent operation by unauthorized personnel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
During a life-long career in law enforcement, I have had the saddening experience of observing many accidents with firearms due to person's other than the owner handling the gun in the owner's absence. While most firearms are equipped with safety devices, such as safety catches and the like, these are external, and when observed by the unauthorized user of the firearm, can easily be disengaged, allowing the firearm to be fired by the user and in many cases causing injury due to unexpired shells still being present in the firearm.
In order to solve the problem of these injuries occurring, it has occurred to me and to others to have a concealed safety device for use in firearms which would be undetectable by the unauthorized user of the firearm, but easily inserted and activated by the owner thereof to prevent unnecessary injury. In my attempt at arriving at a solution to the problems of injury caused by unauthorized use of firearms, I determined that the easiest way to provide such a safety device was to have a casing of a size insertable into the firing chamber of the firearm and have a plunger which can be extended by the owner into the barrel of the firearm, but still be undetectable by the user. There are many such devices on the market, such as those listed below which were located during a patentability search made through the records of the Patent and Trademark Office.
______________________________________ DATE OF PATENT PATENTEE U.S. PAT. NO. ______________________________________ August 27, 1957 W. H. Soski, et al. 2,803,909 July 5, 1960 J. Salva 2,943,411 February 27, 1962 H. M. Wikstrom 3,022,598 April 3, 1962 J. F. Mahan 3,027,674 April 16, 1963 L. C. Robbins, et al. 3,085,360 September 28, 1965 J. E. Giles 3,208,176 January 2, 1968 T. J. Finnegan 3,360,880 April 23, 1968 R. Valburg 3,378,943 June 6, 1978 Moren 4,092,794 February 7, 1989 D. G. Baugus 4,802,298 May 9, 1989 M. J. Sheehan 4,827,649 ______________________________________
A study of these patents shows that other inventors have taken many of the steps I took before I arrived at the present invention, but did not go far enough in making a convenient safety device, so that it is believed that many of these devices, because of their inconvenient nature, go unused by the firearm owner after a short while. I, myself, in arriving at the present invention, went through several stages of development, such as having the twisting mechanism disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,360,880 to T.J. Finnegan, a sliding-type plunger such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,943 to R. Valburg, and the screwdriver-type device in U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,794 to Moren.
However, as stated above, after a short while, all of these proved to be too difficult to operate because of the need for a special tool, and I next tried a solution to the problem similar to that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,027,674 to J.F. Mahan of having a casing insertable in a revolver chamber with a spring-loaded plunger. However, even this proved to be too difficult to operate as one had to keep the spring-loaded plunger depressed while trying to close the revolver cylinder, and in removing the device from the cylinder, one had to keep the plunger depressed with the rod while again opening the cylinder. I was determined to arrive at a better solution to the problem.